The Zamfara State Government invested N12.035bn in real estate, gold and others under one and half years. Princess Rabi Ibrahim, the Special Adviser on Investment and Public Private Partnership to Zamfara State Governor Bello Mohammed Matawalle said on Monday.
While addressing reporters in Abuja on the state’s drive to match Lagos, Kano and other states in investment, Rabi Ibrahim said the governor established the Investment and Public Private Partnership Directorate, and appointed her as Special Adviser to head the Directorate saying her appointment “is yielding the desired results as the Investment Directorate has been attracting various investments to the state as well as investing the resources of Zamfara State in profitable Real Estate investments in the FCT, Abuja and Kaduna State.”
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She added: “Zamfara State has joined the league of States like Lagos, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Kaduna, Nasarawa and Kwara State, that generate huge internal revenue from their Real Estate Investments in Abuja.
“The Investment Directorate under my stewardship has been able to make investments in properties worth a little above N10bn, and gold deposits worth N2bn, so the total investment made by the Directorate amounts to N12.035bn under one and a half year, and we are still negotiating to acquire more properties for the state so as to increase the Internal Generated Revenue.
“Most of the properties we have purchased has appreciated because we do thorough negotiation and, in most cases, purchase in what valuers describe as Forced Sale Value (FSV), that is why a block of six units of three bedroom flats we purchased at Aviation District Abuja for N235m now goes for N350m within a short period of time,” Ibrahim said.
She said that the latest acquisition of the state in their Real Estate investment through the Investment and Public Private Partnership Directorate is a functional five-star hotel at Wuse II area of the FCT Abuja.
While saying that the hotel was offered for outright sale at N2.1bn and it was built with modern-day facilities and tasteful furnishings, she added that after intensive negotiations, and the advice from the consortium of three valuation consultants engaged by the Directorate, the price was slashed down to N1.8bn, which was approved by the governor after he ensured that due processed were followed.
Ibrahim said, “Shockingly, barely few weeks of purchasing this hotel, it has appreciated in value close to one billion naira, if the State wants to sell immediately it will go for about N2.7bn. The purchase of the hotel was a good deal that will pay off the total purchase price approximately in five years and still generate more revenue for the State in subsequent years, as well as create job opportunities for our youth.”
She also said that despite Governor Matawalle meeting an empty treasury and accumulated debt to the tune of N350bn when he came into power, “he has managed to set aside resources for investment out of the meagre Federal allocation the state receives monthly.
She said, “The government went into aggressive reconstruction of most of our dilapidated properties in Kaduna and Abuja given them a greater value in the market today. The Liaison office at Maitama Abuja that had a total value of N400m is now wearing an amazing look giving the property a huge leap in value to the tune N2.6bn.
“The state property at Kaduna worth not than N100m before has been reconstructed by Governor Bello Matawalle and now is valued at N2.8bn, the Directorate is also making arrangements to convert this property into a hotel.”
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